() is a Zen Buddhist proverb. It has been presented by some Zen masters (notably, Kōdō Sawaki and his disciple Taisen Deshimaru). It was a favorite saying of the avant-garde composer John Cage, featured in Song Books (1970) as "Solo for Voice 64". It is also known as Unmen's Good Days () and Unmen's 15 Days ().
Context The phrase comes from Yunmen Wenyan's answer in the sixth case of the kōan collection Blue Cliff Record.Katsuki Sekida, "Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan, Hekiganroku." Weatherhill, 1977. .Thomas Cleary and J.C. Cleary, "Blue Cliff Record". Shambala, Boston/London, 2005. . Originally published in 1977.Urs App, "Master Yunmen". Kodansha, 1994.
舉雲門垂語云：「十五日已前不問汝，十五日已後道將一句來。」 Yunmen said, "I will not ask you anything before the fifteenth day. After the fifteenth day, tell me one sentence."
自代云：「日日是好日。」 He said to himself, "Every day is a good day."
Readings As a Zen word in Japanese, the correct way to read the phrase is . It can also be read as and ;Kōjien 6th Edition there are also examples of it being read as .
literally translates to "every day is a good day", meaning "try to spend every day meaningfully".
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